Entrepreneur of the Week:

This guy created a billion dollar game…

All because he couldn't buy one.

Ever heard of RuneScape? Yeah, he’s THAT guy.

Meet Andrew Gower, here’s his story:

Young Andrew? A huge gaming fan.

Problem? Family's broke.

So what does the mini-genius do?

Starts rebuilding them using magazine guides…

Fast forward to Cambridge.

Andrew linked up with his brother Paul.

They weren’t there to play. Well actually, they were.

Developing graphics for other publishers.

They were selling shovels during a gold rush.

After receiving multiple job offers…

Andrew declined them all.

Turning down the noise and dialing up the game.

Lightbulb goes off. "Medieval world but make it digital."

Boom, RuneScape's born.

Year 1: Clocks 1 MILLION free accounts. But free ain’t paying the bills.

Deciding to launch a paid version….

5,000 subscribers. Week ONE. Yeah, that's 5 with three zeros.

This wasn’t a side hustle anymore…

Andy co-founded Jagex Games Studio.

Becoming UK’s largest independent online game devs:

2003: RuneScape hits 65k paid members.

2007: Bam! 1 million paid subscribers.

2012: 500+ employees at Jagex. This is BIG league.

But by 2010 Andrew had cashed out…

With a new vision. Fen Research.

Mission?

Create a new gaming language.

Designed exclusively for game development.

Aiming to solve problems most game developers face.

All of this…

From a simple university side hustle.

For the full story of RuneScape:

Business Tips of the Week:

Starting a Business:

7 ‘must-tweet’ topics for every entrepreneur: Link

Rules for living (for entrepreneurs, creators and anyone): Link

How to start any business: Link

Thank you for tuning in this week,

— Jas, The Tech Route